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4/20 crackdown just half-right

By Kevin Cheney

Posted:
04/15/2012 01:00:00 AM MDT

They got it half-right. CU-Boulder's plan to reform the annual 4/20 gathering on the Norlin Quad is a major step in the right direction. The plan promotes a sensible solution to an event that had frankly grown too big for its own good. Unfortunately, as the university was taking a step forward, it was also taking two steps back by using threats of tickets and public shaming to scare students from taking part in any public marijuana use.

First, the good. An alternative event that would be equally or more attractive to most students is a well-thought out and laudable effort to draw crowds away from the Quad. Wyclef Jean was a perfect choice because his music is respected in the "cannabis culture" and attending a free concert is something hard to turn down. The timing of the concert will encourage students who do want to engage in 4/20 activities to do so in the privacy of their own home and then attend the concert. In this scenario, everybody wins: students who want to enjoy the holiday can go to the concert and have fun, which they want, while fewer people will attend the smoke-out, which the school wants. These are the results that come from sensible harm-reduction policies.

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Unfortunately, not all of the reform is beneficial for the parties involved. Two changes are particularly alarming. First, the plan to increase police presence, not to better ensure public safety but in order to ticket those who choose to smoke in public will cause more harm than it would prevent. The school argues that it is trying to protect the value of students' degrees and the reputation of our state's flagship university. Yet, how will ticketing hundreds, if not thousands, of students accomplish this goal? How will a marijuana charge improve the chances of a student obtaining employment? How will a news headline that 500 students were ticketed improve our reputation? The fact is that it will not. We know the best way to decrease the chances of a person using drugs in the future is providing them with an education and a job. Issuing tickets for small amounts of marijuana hinders students' chances at both.

Perhaps worse is the administration's use of the Clery Act in their email warning to students. As law students, we are taught to read laws carefully and to be sure of what we write, but it seems CU failed to do so before sending its email to the entire student body. The Clery Act compels universities to keep track of crime on campus and make those statistics available online. Its purpose is to provide prospective students with complete and accurate information as they choose a school. However, the Act does not seem to permit what the administrators threaten to do. It specifically states in Section F Subsection 7 that the published statistics shall NOT reveal the identities of the criminals or victims. It also states in Section F Subsection 17 that the Act may not be used to threaten, intimidate, or coerce students. The school's email suggested use of the Clery Act that clearly violates both. CU should make sure it is following the law before it demands the same of its students.

Even those who are "4/20 friendly" understand the need to curtail an unsanctioned illegal event that is held during class time right in the middle of campus. However, there is a right way and a wrong way to deal with the issue. Sponsoring alternative events such as the Wyclef Jean concert is a great way to promote a sensible policy toward student drug use and a scenario where everybody can win. But mass ticketing and illegal threats of disclosure under the Clery Act defeat the very purpose the University aims to serve. As students at Colorado's only public law school we know the harsh realities that can result from a criminal conviction. We respectfully ask the administration to withdraw its threat of citations and public disclosure and instead focus on the promotion of the alternative concert.

Kevin Cheney is a CU Law student and with the Students for Sensible Drug Policy, University of Colorado Law School Chapter.

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